UK 'complicit' in arms sales to Israel ahead of Gaza war

The UK government is reviewing its arms sales to Israel, after it discovered that components made in Britain may have been used in the recent military bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the branch of the UK government responsible for granting arms exports licences, is conducting an internal review after it discovered 12 instances in which weapons containing components produced in the UK “may” have been used in the Gaza war.

The department told MEE on Thursday that it assesses every licence it grants against “published international criteria,” taking into account the end user, in this case the Israeli army, as well as the specifications of the item itself.

However, BIS officials have identified at least 12 licences it granted for the export of weapons that may ultimately have been used during the Israeli army’s 51-day bombardment of Gaza over the summer, which killed over 2,200 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 73 Israelis, 64 of them soldiers.

Early in the conflict, the UN’s top human rights official suggested in July that the Israeli military’s air campaign in the coastal enclave was in violation of international law, saying that reports of heavy civilian casualties resulting from airstrikes on homes raised questions over the legality of the campaign.

Ahead of the bombardment, launched on 8 July, the UK sold arms to Israel including components thought to have been used during the campaign, dubbed Operation Protective Edge by the military.

In the first six months of 2014, in a period ending just eight days before the bombing began, BIS granted arms export licences to Israel worth over $11 million.

The shipments included a wide variety of military components and equipment worth a total of $10.96m (£6.96), according to a breakdown sought by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT).

The value of the exports fall within the normal range of UK arms sales to Israel, which average between $10 and $15 million annually – but the contents of the shipments have caused concern among activists over allegations over the UK’s “complicity” in this summer’s Gaza war.

Components for high-speed jets and military radars were among the arms sent to Israel over the six-month period leading up to the war – this equipment has been identified by a UK government review as potentially having been used during Operation Protective Edge.

Andrew Smith, spokesperson for Campaign Against Arms Trade, told MEE that the revelation does not come as a shock.

“We know that in the run-up to the bombardment, the UK was selling the exact same sorts of arms which its own reviews say are likely to have been used in the bombing.”

“The UK is complicit in what the Israeli government is doing - we have to look also at the broader considerations behind this.”

While BIS is responsible for assessing arms exports licences to Israel, a separate UK government department, the Ministry of Defence, has a contract worth nearly $1.57 billion with Elbit Systems, a top Israeli drone producer.

The ongoing contract, inked in 2005, is for the delivery of Watchkeeper WK450 drones, which Elbit famously sells as “field-tested” in real-life battles.

CAAT’s Andrew Smith said that this deal brings the UK government into a close relationship with Israel’s military industries, raising questions over BIS’s ability to police the UK’s arms exports to Israel impartially.

In response, BIS told MEE that there is “absolutely no conflict of interest.

“This government takes its arms export responsibilities very seriously and aims to operate one of the most robust and transparent arms export control systems in the world,” a BIS spokesperson said.

Activists say, though, that the UK’s role in trading arms with Israel casts a shadow over its efforts to broker peace between Israel and Palestine.

“The UK government is helping to perpetuate violence against the Palestinian people by bolstering Israel’s defence industry through the purchase of weapons from Israeli arms companies, and by facilitating the sale of arms to Israel,” according to Tom Anderson, a researcher with Corporate Watch.

“In light of the fact that it both purchases weapons from Israeli military companies and approves licences to Israel, I don’t see how it can be a broker for peace.” 

UK companies investing in cluster bombs

Pressure is growing for tighter regulation of the arms trade in the UK, as a new report finds that UK-based financial institutions continue to invest in weapons that are illegal under international law.

A report published on Thursday by the Netherlands-based peace campaign group PAX found that seven UK-based financial institutions invest in companies that produce deadly cluster bombs.

The weapons, highly explosive bombs that can contain up to several hundred smaller bomblets, kill and maim indiscriminately when unleashed.

According to anti-cluster bomb campaigner Amy Little, cluster bombs are “currently killing civilians in Syria,” according to anti-cluster bomb campaigner Amy Little.

The 2008 UN Convention on Cluster Munitions, signed by almost 200 states, made their use illegal – despite this, the Cluster Munition Coalition reports the killings of “hundreds” of people by the bombs in Syria in the first half of 2014.

The 2008 decision to ban the weapons was expedited by international outrage over Israel’s heavy use of cluster bombs during Israel’s 2006 incursion into Lebanon.

An Israeli army commander boasted in September 2006 that his forces had fired more than a million of the bombs during the 34-day conflict, which according to Amnesty International killed almost 1,200 Lebanese citizens.

The report calls on states that have signed up to the UN Convention on Cluster Munitions, including the UK, to make companies aware that as well as prohibiting the use of cluster bombs, the convention also forbids investing in companies that produce them.

Ahead of a planned day of action called by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Committee aimed at stopping the UK's arms trade with Israel, activists are calling on the government to tighten up its ship.

“There is no morality in the arms trade,” Smith said, “and it’s up to the government to stop their profiteering."